Chapter One: Winning Federal Government Contracts
In the beginning there is the opportunity.
Now, there are two (2) types of opportunities: those created and those identified.
The company that CREATES an opportunity networks, markets, and sells themselves for months if not years in advance. Such efforts give them substantial advantages because they will have had the opportunity to help the buying agency determine their needs, launch the acquisition, define the requirements, and perhaps even submitted a rough draft of the Statement of Work (SOW).
To keep this substantial edge, such a company needs to know not only the names of every company that would complete against it, but everything possible about these companies.
The company that IDENTIFIES an opportunity has arrived late in the scene. And if they are truly out to win, they need to work not only hard, but smart to catch up. They must face the fact that another company did the networking, marketing, and selling that they themselves should have been engaged in and they must chisel in stone a note to not to let this happen again.
In order to win, such a company has to know (i) the name of the company already on the scene, (ii) all they can about them, (iii) what other companies will likely show up to compete, and (iv) all you can know about them as well.
There is precedence for this:
"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle." - Sun Tze, The Art of War, 400 BC.
In the beginning there is the opportunity.
Now, there are two (2) types of opportunities: those created and those identified.
The company that CREATES an opportunity networks, markets, and sells themselves for months if not years in advance. Such efforts give them substantial advantages because they will have had the opportunity to help the buying agency determine their needs, launch the acquisition, define the requirements, and perhaps even submitted a rough draft of the Statement of Work (SOW).
To keep this substantial edge, such a company needs to know not only the names of every company that would complete against it, but everything possible about these companies.
The company that IDENTIFIES an opportunity has arrived late in the scene. And if they are truly out to win, they need to work not only hard, but smart to catch up. They must face the fact that another company did the networking, marketing, and selling that they themselves should have been engaged in and they must chisel in stone a note to not to let this happen again.
In order to win, such a company has to know (i) the name of the company already on the scene, (ii) all they can about them, (iii) what other companies will likely show up to compete, and (iv) all you can know about them as well.
There is precedence for this:
"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle." - Sun Tze, The Art of War, 400 BC.
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